Rainey Street: A virtual tour of one of Austin's fastest-changing neighborhoods

Rainey Street has been a center of change in Austin for about five years. After living quietly for about a century as a traditional working-class neighborhood, the area has been reborn into a hip, young nightlife scene with high-rise condos for those who want to do more than play there.

Even more changes are on the way, and I chronicled some of what's happening in this week's print issue of the Austin Business Journal.

Photographer Nick Simonite visited the scene with me during the reporting process, and we've put together a slideshow so you can take a virtual tour of Rainey Street. Just click the photo above. We've thrown in a few renderings of some of the new, dramatic buildings that are going up in the area soon.

Entrepreneurs such as Bridget Dunlap — who some call the "Queen of Rainey Street" — and real estate interests are making a lot of money and placing even bigger bets on the future of this fast-growing neighborhood tucked in the southeast corner of downtown Austin.